Saturday, October 18, 2014

In getting a buy site up, with links to Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes, I needed an image for each book, something that depicted the energy of the book.

Below was my first try and led to ideas for the rest. Once an author has the books at multiple sites, finding a way to notify the readers can be tricky! My site is Romances with an Edgebut not all links are live yet.

Going there gives warnings to those with finicky virus checkers because of those buy links. There is nothing that can hurt a computer IF you don't click on links you don't know where they go. Mine only go to major book selling sites.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The following was written in 2011 at the time I first decided to bring most of the books I had written out as eBooks. The philosophy though has not changed in the last three years. This is what I try to do with my books and why I write.

In the Beginning

My
philosophy on writing can be broken down into various aspects. I share them here now not as an ultimate truth of how to do it but just my personal experience with writing. It is about how to get characters, plot, a beginning, middle, and finally wrapping it all up with an end

For me, writing, whether it gets published or not has
been a satisfying way to step into someone else's life, to spend
imaginary time places I love, and create something rewarding for myself.
It has an added benefit unlike say sculpture or paintings, that the end
products don’t take up a lot of space. Time though, yes much time, but time spent developing imagination and craft is not time wasted.

One
of the things I have found and believe (and this covers all of my
creative endeavors), I can only create the best I can. I can only tell my story, create my sculpture or paint my painting. What I do in any of these media may not be appreciated by anybody else. If a creative person doesn't get that idea down and can't live with it, then putting creative work out into the world is a mistake.

Of course, our work is not that original in the one sense. Where it comes to writing, there really are only so many plot devices out there but what we can individually bring to that story, that ca be one of a kind. There are a lot of authors I admire
(likewise painters and sculptors), but I cannot be them. If I try to
copy what someone else has created, it is craft at best and drivel at worst.

I
have no interest in writing some kinds of stories but have always
thought I'd love to be able to write what I call crone lit, which means
good stories about older women but without romance. Up until recently
that bothered me, because all that would come to me were ideas for
stories about a man and a woman coming together in the midst of some
other dilemma as they try to decide if they can build a future together.When
I start to write anything else, say a story of three sisters, their
complicated relationships with each other and maybe dealing with the
breaking up of their parents marriage or maybe a woman coping with
divorce or you know a multitude of real life instances, I start writing,
which is how I do romances; and those other stories end up a lot
of words strung together but none of the things that I believe a good story needs to not only hold the reader's interest but give them something to take away. If it's not even
holding mine as I am writing it, I know it's not going to become of
interest to anybody else.Recently though, after
working with so many of my stories at one time, trying to get them
edited to a point I would want to put them out, I feel far more positive about romance as a genre. Romances do have a point and a purpose
if one understands what to expect from them. Yes, they are the stepchild of the literary family, even though they sell a lot of books. But there is a reason they are popular and it is nothing for which to apologize.

There
is an emotional release from a romance novel, a kind of fairy tale with
real people quality. I don't like to write the type of story loaded
with angst but let's face it, a passionate love is not without angst. I
don't care for flowery language; so I don't use it. I also am one of those who writes a simple story, leaving out what readers mostly skim over anyway. On the other hand, who knows
what someone else really will find touching their soul and where they
will find those words were important.

My stories do have sex in them, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending
on what the characters need. Yes, you can suggest sex without
doing anything more than a glance but sometimes to show the liberation
of a character, the places their love is taking them, sex is
part of it.

Writing is
both a craft and an art. If you cannot make yourself understood, you are unlikely to find readers. Making words flow, giving energy to places and times, those are the things a reader will carry away when they close the story. So first step is to decide what type of story you want to tell. Find its
genre and the needs within that genre, and if you are creating a brand
new genre, more power to you but recognize there were reasons those
other genres were created. They satisfied a need in readers. If you want
to create a brand new one, make sure it will do that.

Without Characters

When
discussing characters, I thought I'd start with a couple of my story
ideas that didn't work. Oh they sounded good, at least to me, but
went nowhere although I am not convinced they never will.My
favorite is a reincarnation story that I thought would be simply great.
I figured it would be a bit of a murder mystery which fits my ‘romances
with an edge’ theme.The story would incorporate three
past lives I planned to use with at least one is possibly one of mine.
I found in used bookstores the necessary material for the historic
periods I would need (this was before internet changing research so
much). Where a romance is a bit of a fantasy, a fairy tale, I like mine
to be set in a real period and place, although I might use made up names
for a town, but it will always be where there are real towns and
describe their feel.I knew how the story would
progress. She would have nightmares and is looking for a reason for
them. She wouldn't be a believer in reincarnation, but her dreams would
become more and more vivid as she got deeper into remembering these
other lifetimes. And she needs to remember.Her motive
then for going backward from today would have to be a life that wasn't
all she wanted and one more thing-- a threat around her where the answer
will be found in one of the people in her current life and the
relationship from the past one—so a bit metaphysical, investigative and,
of course, there’d be love as along with an age-old enemy, there would
have to be her soul mate. The story would be told in 'flashbacks' and
today. I thought it'd be fun to write and interesting. What could go
wrong?What went wrong is I never had her character. I
tried different possibilities for who she was but nothing worked and
when I'd start to write, it would just be those words strung together
with no form. After a couple of tries, I gave it up because if I
couldn't find her, there was nothing else I cared about, but who knows I
might go back to it someday if someday she comes to me.After
I had spent time at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, I had another idea for a
story that went nowhere of an Anasazi woman and a traveling trader, a
Pacific Northwest Native American. Perfect combination of a place I
love, the Southwest, and boy have you ever seen some of those Pacific
Northwest Native American men? Perfect for a romance-- a totally yummy
hero and quite a problem for two cultures trying to come together, one
adventuring and more warlike while the other, where the story takes
place, is on the cusp of change. I would have placed it when the Anasazi
culture was turning violent itself and falling apart, right before they
disappeared from their mesas and left behind a mystery as to why.What
went wrong? Well for one thing I had always written about women with
whom I could relate, where I understood how they would talk, what they'd
want in their lives. What did I know about that woman? I could make her
be like me but that didn't feel right culturally. The end result was it
went nowhere-- although I have the research materials for that also...
Maybe someday.So I can have the genre and even the
plot, but if I don't have the characters, it's all for nothing in my
opinion. I have to virtually fall in love with my heroes and feel my
heroines are worthy of them with something interesting about them also.

This
is just personal preference, but in most of my stories, one of my lead
characters will be almost mythic, larger than life, while the other will
be grounded and more a stand-in for the reader. It can be the man or
the woman for either role. One stands for the fantasy, the dream. The
other is possibly the one to whom the average reader relates.The
characters are, to me anyway, most important and without them, the rest
is just words. I’ve read a lot of romances, from those years of
learning the genre, and some are pathetic for how stereotyped they are,
how they manipulate the reader. Call a heroine Fancy and frankly I’m
through reading.

A
really good story should have characters that seem real. Sure there has
to be some fantasy to them but if they are like anybody else, what was
the purpose of the book again? Readers of romances want an emotional
lift.

Where
it comes to characters, there are only so many ‘types’ out there, but
if they are too plastic, it isn’t particularly interesting. Strong
detective type guy but then what else is about him to make him not seem
like you've read about him too many times? Schoolmarm? Ho hum-- but a
schoolteacher who is an amateur detective, now it’s going somewhere
somewhere.From where do mine come? Well they aren't
real people. They aren't movie stars. Only once have I written one where
I later knew who that character was for real, but I didn't know the
person when I wrote it; so can't say if that was coincidence or what.I
think music helps me not only get the energy for heroes/heroines but
also for plots. It has to be soundtracks with no words. I don't need
music to write non-fiction, but when it comes to romances, I want the
oomph it can provide. It’s amazing how I find new ways of saying
something based on music. Find some really heroic, compassionate, or
romantic music and a writer is in business.Once I had a
story that was going nowhere for the hero even with the plot firmly in
my mind, then I began to play the soundtrack for Phantom of the Opera
(plot nothing like my story) and the emotional passion of that music
practically wrote his character and the rest of the story-- the fastest I
have ever written 80,000 or so words-- in one month.

Besides
the hero and heroine there are sidekicks (several of which I end up
liking so much that they get their own romance eventually); and of
course, a lot of run to write are the villains. Some of mine have been
definite psychopaths; but even then I want them to have believable
motivation—crazy as it would seem to anybody who wasn’t ruthless. I
absolutely love writing interesting villains and the dialogue between
them and the main characters; but they aren't the heart of the stories.
They are, however, what I think gives the plot the edge, the zing. I
can't live that long with unsavory people, certainly not as much as it'd
take to write a story just about them. My inability do that probably
limits me as a writer, but it's simply not how I can live my real life.
And writing should improve daily life or it's not a good thing to do.Characters,
who can come from anywhere, really are where it all starts and if a
writer can create characters who are exciting, interesting, complex, and
can grow through their experiences, I think it's the heart of the
story. Without them, along with some great villains and secondary
characters, it goes nowhere even with what seems like a good plot at
least not for me.

Plotting Plots

So
what does work to put together the plot if you have the characters?
Basically there are only so many plot outlines and they have all been
used many times. The trick is to give a derivative of that so what you
write is fresh.One thing you absolutely had to do back
when I began writing seriously was to understand your genre. That would
still be critical if you wanted to sell something to a publisher as
they want things to fit niches that have already been successful. Each
genre has requirements. Readers expect when they pick up say a mystery
that it will have certain qualities. I have read authors say, who can
write mysteries and romances, that they would literally have to clean
their palette between, by reading something totally different like
Hemingway, as romances were one way and mysteries quite another for what
was needed.For years when I was trying to write
romances, I read a lot of them which was highly recommended. I read them
until they were coming out my ears. I also read books on developing
stories, worked with a consulting writer on one of mine, and I wrote.
Even if my efforts weren't as good as I thought they could be, I'd still
write.Then I stopped being able to even tolerate
reading romances. It was like the time you get too much sugar. Your
teeth ache (not really) and you think you can't stand one more sweet
thing and you go months without any. This turned into years before I had
to move a bookcase which meant sort books and discovered there were
some romances in those shelves that I was still enjoying. Mostly they
were stories with a lot of what I am trying to put into my own
stories—limited flowery language, no euphemisms, and a real problem to
resolve. If there is an obstacle between hero and heroine (and in a
romance there better be) then it can’t be something silly to satisfy me.

Also,
endless angst wears me out. I like real situations involving strong
characters who besides falling in love are dealing, not endlessly
whining, with a very real problem/s. Whiners aren't my cup of tea in
life or books. I also don't like weak heroines who do silly things but
still have this exciting man wanting them. If any of my lead characters
start out that way, they better grow and stop moaning about the
situation, take life in their own hands and responsibility. And when
they do take life into their own hands, it should be believable. Skills
you knew they had but they are just learning they can wield etc.

Although
I generally start out knowing where my stories are going, the core of
them, I like to make discoveries along the way. I don’t do an advance
outline. When you have these two people (and their assorted connections)
then I will stop and think now what might happen as a happy little
addition here or there—or an additional complication.

Not
for me either is writing a plot like Stephen King or what Anne Rice
used to put out. I do have one paranormal and it worked okay for me to
have a monster, although I didn't much like the research I had do for
that one; but generally I don't like to immerse myself in negativity or
scary stuff. Some danger, that's fine; but not horror. If I won't read
them, I sure as heck won't write them where I'd be spending months, not
hours with some situation.I saw a non-fiction book (I prefer non-fiction at this point in my reading life) the other day, The Murder Room
that looked interesting as a story about three men with expertise in
criminal cases who meet monthly to try to solve cold cases, which are
brought to them by someone else. I thought it might give me some future
story ideas for villains and the possibility, from different angles, as
to how they might be found out (my romances usually have a crime and
villain as part of their edge); but I didn't purchase it because in
skimming it, I saw it looked to me like it dwelt way too much on the
psychopaths and not enough on the ones trying to solve the cases. It had
some photos in the center and they sent me quickly setting it down. I
kind of like Ann Rule books for how a crime happens and how it is found
out but I can only take so much and hers are best when the emphasis is
on how they find the bad guys.

The Craft of Plots

My
writing of plots has been influenced by Joseph Campbell's writings on
the power of mythology because a great romance really is a kind of myth.
So what must it have? Usually to start, a grounding of where the
hero/heroine is before the story begins. Where are they living, who are
they before comes what is called the gatekeeper experience. It is when
something happens that sends that character into another world and on
their way to their adventure. It might be meeting their soul mate. It
might be a disaster, but it has to be strong enough to get them out of
their world and enter a new one. The new one is where change happens.
Writing the gatekeeper section for me has to be believable. If there
isn't a strong enough reason to move forward, the story falls apart for
me.When in the adventure, there has to be growth,
threat, relaxation and then more of each. Some name that the W which
means you start out one place, go into a valley and then something helps
you get back up to the next apex and back you go. A good romance has
those valleys and hills. Excite, relax, back to threaten. The romantic
moments can come in either place but they are part of them-- but in my
stories, not the all.Ideally I like to write something
that makes the reader and the character think this is it, they got
it... and then comes the letdown, the boom, the threat, the demand they
must go somewhere they don't want to go but it's the only way for them.
So something fun, light, maybe even humorous, romantic, and then the
character faces a challenge. Great moments followed by a what the heck is this ones.Good
music is like that also. There is the build up and then the drop, the
filled with joy part and then the threat right behind it. Western
soundtracks are the best at this. I work to them quite often whether
it's a western (actually I only wrote one true western) or something
contemporary because they have that heroic bent that I always want. For
me, it's hard to write to any song with lyrics although I have used a
few soundtracks where the lyrics seem to be submerged in the melodies
and they work-- best though is something like the soundtrack to Red
River. Perfect!Then comes the story's conclusion and a
writer really has to think about that. One thing is it has to seem like
it was right that it happen that way. I hate a story or movie where it
seems the writer just made something happen that earlier hadn't been
going that way.Also I don't like a drop in ending that
wasn't being built toward. All of a sudden it's rush to a conclusion
that didn't seem right for everything before it. Don't cheat the reader.
Where it comes to a romance, a person has spent a number of hours with
these people and needs to care that they are getting at least for the
moment a happily ever after. Save the tragedies for literature. Romances
are not meant to be tragedies, just make you think they might become
one.My stories all have happy endings which means I
have to make that seem believable. There is enough tragedy in life
without my creating it for a book, without my dwelling on it for the
months most manuscripts take to create. I like to write what I'd like to
read and that's something that makes me feel better when I set the bookdown than when I first picked it up.

The Setting

For
me, an important aspect to a story coming together is where it's set.
It is important to me in reading or writing one. So far I have never
written one that wasn't in places I have been and experienced. The
closest to an exception would be the story of the wagon train. But I did
see the parts of the trail from Wyoming on West, had driven some of it
in my part of Oregon.When I am thinking of characters
and plot, I also consider where I'd like to write about in terms of
country. For me it's fun to write about places I have enjoyed being and
incorporate them into a story.Equally enjoyable is to
write about someone's home and have it be a home I'd love to have. One
example is a contemporary romance where the artist heroine had gotten an
older home along the Tualatin River in Oregon. She had bought it
needing to be repaired and fixed it up.When I was a
kid, I had been in a home very similar to it when my uncle had rented it
and I stayed there with my cousins for a few days. I'd have loved
having that home even though it was older and not my uncle's idea of a
good home. I gave it to my heroine and let her do with it what I'd have
enjoyed doing if I had gotten it.Some of my favorite
books to read have had the same situation where the characters are
living somewhere I find fascinating. I don't know how many readers find
that an important part of their reading pleasure, but it's sure mine and
it adds a lot of enjoyment to writing a fiction piece when I can set it
somewhere I'd love to live in an alternate life.If
you know where the story is taking place, you know the birds, the feel
of the wind, what kind of storms are likely, the flowers or fall colors,
and you can insert that all to let the reader feel they are really
there. Not like a travelogue but as it is for us when we are somewhere
and the sounds, smells and sights around us are what it means to be
there.In a novel, it's nice to, instead of writing it
all down in one block, do it like you'd feel it if you were there,
pieces here and there throughout the story. It keeps the reader grounded
while they are getting this bit of a ride with your story-- hopefully.

Snappy Dialogue

One
of the things the consulting writer drilled into me over and over was
to show not tell. Dialogue is a wonderful way to do that. You want to
show what a character is really like, the easiest way is how do they
treat other people. Tell your reader how wonderful they are but give
them boring, long expository dialogue and watch it not be believed.What
people say in real life, how they communicate will be different from
one person to another and it's important to keep the dialogue true to
each different one. Now this isn't easy because all the dialogue is
really the writer's. It's easy to end up having all the people sound
alike for how they talk, for what is important to them, but it is not
the best dialogue.There are some great movies for
getting ideas for snappy dialogue. Watch how the characters communicate
and the sharp line that says it all. There are films I can watch over
and over just for that snap. Pretty much anything with Humphrey Bogart
in it is a good example.The other thing is listen to
real conversations wherever you are. People don't talk in a line. They
come and go with their thinking and ideas come in seemingly from
nowhere. Don't finish up every possible dialogue hanging line because
sometimes that's what leads the reader to wait for the answer. Have
people insert things that are red herrings because that's life.Some
of my characters are better at dialogue than others and when that
happens, I try to go back at it and see if it is the character who is
lacking in personality too.

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.""...You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you.”"As you wish.""You had me at hello.""I wish I knew how to quit you."

Lines
like those say it all about the character and the story. Even if you
don't know what came before or what movie they were from, you know the
feeling they generated. Naturally all dialogue is not that powerful but
it's the goal.There's nothing wrong with a lengthy
piece of dialogue but if that's all that is in the story, I think it
doesn't work. If dialogue isn't how people talk but simply to tell the
story, that doesn't work. When I am reading someone else's story and a
character talks for too long, I tend to zone out on it. I try to avoid
that failing (it's easy to slip up) in my own stories. Keep the dialogue
to the point and make it fit who said it. If a character is driveling
on, make it clear that it's their personality and not a plus.

"Here's looking at you, kid."

The Ending

So
basically these are the kind of things I have been working to make my
stories have-- characters, plot, setting, somewhere to go, emotionally
satisfying vicarious experiences for the reader, and dialogue that would
be fun to read aloud.I came to have more belief in my
own stories, see the value of a romance that really creates a mythology
to reach for in life. Unrealistic? Possibly but it's something for
which to reach. That's why it has value as an inspiration. Well some
also is a momentary escape from reality. That's no different than a
movie or special music. It isn't so much wanting what the romance has
told as a story as it is strengthening our own energy for whatever we
face.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Many covers for one book, From Here to There, and not one of these did the job for readers. This book got more reviews mentioning the cover negatively. The dilemma of creating a cover to satisfy the book, the reader, and me.

As the writer, here was my problem. This is a love story but not just of two people, also of the West and ranch living. It is a love story to Montana. How does one cover do that? Well, until maybe the last one, it hasn't. We'll see about the last one.

This is, of course, not the only book to have had reader dissatisfaction with my choice of covers. It has been an ongoing issue. Luckily with eBooks, changing a cover isn't hard... or is that lucky?

Is this one going to work? Time will tell. I like it for now and it's not so different from my original painting.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

♥ Everything we do cannot be purely for noble purposes. Sometimes, like say sneaking out and having a cinnamon roll or whatever qualifies for a guilty pleasure in your life, it's healthy to do something just because it's fun. I liked this article on guilty pleasures and thought romance books really do qualify as one. Books don't have to be Moby Dick or a weighty historic tome to have value for our lives.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

To start, when someone is reading fiction, never assume the author has experienced any of what they write about. It's hard to say exactly from where stories come but where it comes to sex, it'd be easy to imagine an author with a very exciting sex life or maybe one totally warped. Neither have to be true. It's fiction.

There can be romantic books without any sex. There can be romantic books that are pretty much erotica which means with a plot of sorts. They really are never pornography (although a Puritan might accuse them of that). The sex in a romantic story does serve a purpose, and it's not purely to gratify prurient interests even if it seems pretty sensual. It is there for a reason. The range the genre spans include where the couple never 'do it' to it starts from their first meeting. The books also can be pretty graphic or full of euphemisms.

My own stories all have sexuality as part of the story. Some have more detail. Others brush over what is happening. The couples do have to have a level of commitment to become sexually involved but that does not mean marriage. In fact the only married couple sex I have ever written about was when the couple were divorced or about to divorce or had one of those romance book devices to get them married when it's not for real.

How to write about a sexual encounter is something I think about when I am writing as I don't want the action to seem phony, but on the other hand, they have to have some creativity or what is the point? I also ask myself how comfortable would I be for me if my kids read what I wrote.

To date, my main characters have all been pretty much in their twenties to early forties. They have beautiful bodies and appreciate each other's bodies very much. They are heterosexual only because it's what I know, but the stories sometimes have gay characters who are friends or even villains.

My favorite villains are actually bisexual (this is not used technically but means purely that these people use sex to subjugate and might be of any genre because sex isn't about attraction but power). Now I am not sure why I like bisexual villains; but maybe it's because by the nature of being outlaw types, they obviously are people who break all the rules and where we like to have people's sexuality put into tidy boxes, a villain who can't be pegged, adds a dimension. He becomes equally a threat to the heroine and hero.

My romances and the sexual encounters between the hero and heroine are fantasies. These are soul mates who know how to please each other or very rapidly will be learning how. The sex is idyllic.

I never write about sex that is not voluntary. They used to have a category of romance called bodice rippers where the hero was likely to rape the heroine their first time because the heroine would say no when she wanted to say yes. I find that revolting. Sex, to me, should be a choice that both make; and if someone says no, they should mean it.

Not long ago I watched a German film about sex between seniors-- Cloud Nine. The three people in it ranged from late 60s to late 70s and looked their ages. It is a story about an affair and the consequences. It was not in the fantasy category for the sex it portrayed, but it was pretty graphic and honest about sexuality. It could not have been made in the United States as here, if two old people are going to have sex, they better look like Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren!

So maybe someday I'll write a story about older people and romance. I mostly have kept my characters close to my own age, which means a future story might be about an older woman and if that happens, sex will be part of the story and the characters will not have perfect bodies but rather ones appropriate to their ages.

It can be complex for me to write about sex, to feel comfortable with what I have the characters doing. I don't add it without thought and also don't put it in just to satisfy a genre which expects it. In my stories, it will be there when I think it's what would have happened; but I admit, I enjoy writing about it and trying to make it beautiful. Romance after all is about fantasy and should be satisfying, making the reader feel mmmmm that was nice, not ack!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Romance novels have the advantage of giving someone emotions to wallow in which they can then leave behind when they set the book down. For those who have purposely suppressed feeling (and that doesn't mean necessarily sexual feelings but emotional ones), the romance novel might seem a threat.

Although a romance novel can feel very real, it can also seem forced. As a writer, you want to evoke a certain feeling and you force in a gimmick to make that happen. As a reader, you come along and think-- you gotta be kidding me. Some authors throw in every single gimmick known to humankind to the point it becomes a parody which is fine if it was meant to be one.

A well done romance will remind someone of what can be between a man and a woman which will necessarily include the angst. Without the possibility of pain, can there be glory? Actually every time we enter into a love relationship, we lay ourselves open to pain because everything ends one way or another. I think the intensity of possessing happiness is enhanced if you truly do know the alternative emotion.

In my experience the things that didn't work out are where the angst comes in. The I wish it had been but it wasn't. These are the moments that you tried but could not hold onto. A romance novel takes those kind of moments and multiplies them but then lets the ending come in a way it might not have for you but will for those hours spent with the book. It's that ahhh moment where it goes deep and you get that energy.

The energy is real. It stays even if in real life when the actual experience isn't one you could keep for yourself. So there's some of the rose and the thorn. Avoid the risk of the thorn and you cannot have the rose.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Where it comes to romantic energy, it seems to me it's not as simple as it seems to define what it is as it's not just about lust and sex.

When you love someone you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. Anne Morrow Lindbergh

To me what a reader wants from a quality romance novel is an emotional experience, the experience of pathos and victory. It is emotion and fire but with tenderness and truth. Through the difficulties (and without difficulties there is no story) is the knowledge (unlike life) that this will work out in the end, and it will be worth the struggle.Finding some music that duplicates that feeling was my goal to put together a slideshow of the eBook covers I created for my stories. I debated over quite a few good romantic songs. The thing is, there is the beginning, but then what makes it last? So

And then the one that speaks to the deeper level. In some ways, this shows the growth of my covers as the ones above were the first (including two I have yet to decide to release as eBooks). Then comes where the books had to go to have covers that worked for readers and me. It's not that different from real relationships where we must grow and take them where they are meant to go, not being afraid of change.

Monday, October 10, 2011

There is at first glance the beauty that is almost transcendent but around it are the thorns. No thorns, no story.

A well-written romance story will be like romance itself. Grab it too tightly and it will be destroyed. There are always thorns.

It doesn't last in the form it is no matter how one might wish. Lovers can try to hold onto it through words or photos but the only real place it can be held is in one's heart and through memories as it is a fleeting thing, not the forever kind.

Anyone who tries to hold onto romance through life is looking for a lot of disappointment as well as ignoring other things that are deeper.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Years ago, more than I can count right now, I began writing romances. Actually the stories began before writing. As children, when the family got together, my cousin and I would go for walks and we'd tell each other stories, taking turns where we took the story and then letting the other carry it to the next step. Great fun.Going along with this was my desire to use dolls where I created stories and worlds to live these scenarios out. When my own dolls (this was pre-Barbie era), could not match my imagination, I made paper dolls where the men and women were nude (guessing about that back then) and had elaborate wardrobes usually to fit historic periods of time.Unfortunately there came an age where I felt paper dolls were no longer age appropriate and I destroyed all of mine. I feel rather disappointed in that now except maybe they live better in my memory than I actually had made them.Then came the years where I began to write my stories on a typewriter, one of those old fashioned type that look so cool and require strong fingers to make the letters equal in value. Add to it the use of white paint to wipe out the errors. Not such great fun but it got the stories down on paper.Next step in writing came with an electric typewriter that had two advantages for the writer-- even pressure on letters and one key that let you type over mistakes with a special paper that covered typos.Reluctantly I tried my first computer as an Atari. I thought it'd never be as easy to work with as the typewriter. Yeah right. No more white out and the ability to move around whole paragraphs when required were among the many many pluses.I wrote two stories back then. The first was a historic about a wagon train, two young adults and the trip west. It had come out of one of the ones my cousin and I told each other. The second was a rodeo romance. Those were the days when nothing got saved online or on a CD and so the rodeo romance I only had a printed copy until this year.With computers came more stories, a lot of writing and rewriting, a lot of reading. What does a romance have to have in it? Each genre has expectations from the readers and I tried to make the stories that came to me (eventually there were thirteen of them on my hard drive) fit what I wanted and the reader might expect.During this time I laid out money (quite a bit of it) to have a consulting writer (I got her name from an agent) help me with editing my wagon train story. What she taught me, as I would send the chapters to her and get them marked up and her notations, was worth all I paid. I needed that insight into my work and used her teachings in everything else I was writing.Some of the stories I had written were submitted to publishers only to be rejected. Most were not read by anybody but me. When I did send them off, sometimes I got them at least read. Sometimes not. Mostly I found I didn't actually fit the expectations for assorted reasons. I wasn't really a writer that fit a niche. I didn't blame them for that. They are in this as a business and it has to make money.Life went on and I had experiences that opened me up to more understanding of the characters. Perhaps the planets changed their angle or something, but I got interested in writing these stories again. My first thought was to see how they held up. Some very much. Others not so much. Mostly, the characters did, the plots did, but the dialogue was in the not so much category. My time online taught me a lot about how people talked to each other.So this spring, at the age where I have experienced a bit more than I had back when this all began, I sat down and worked on them and felt better and better about what I had written. The stories, with each editing, became truer to my own sense of truth and life but still with the romantic slant.As I got to this point, I thought of doing a blog on this subject. One that would write about writing but also that would be a place for these manuscripts, as they come out as eBooks, to be discussed, where I could write more about how they came to be, my own philosophy on romance. Most of them are contemporary, all (except for the characters on their way to Oregon) are set in places I have lived or love. Some are connected to each other as in some characters know each other and in the next story, they will reappear. They are romances with a dangerous aspect. Each story will have the emotional aspect that the characters wrestle with but also something more, that edge which I enjoy reading in other books.Here, in this blog, will be the place for me to write about the books, new ideas for future books, about the process of writing, the disappointments, the pleasures, the problems, and about the value of romance to life.

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Historical Romances

Contemporary Western Romances

Fantasy Romances

Romance with an Edge is here to both promote the reading of romance novels by discussing their reasons for being, what must be in one, why one might want to read one, but most especially to promote my own stories as a place to learn about them and where to purchase them.

My stories likewise have a purpose. I titled this blog Romance with an Edge because it's the kind of story I both enjoy reading and writing. Mine are stories of darkness and light, hardness and softness, the rose and the thorn, yin and yang, the sweet with the tang, the safe with the dangerous.

The goal of my writing is to put forth stories with the wheat and not the chaff where I tell a story of not everything that happened but all that matters.

novellas

About Me

In my 70s, I am an Oregonian, with one home on a cattle and sheep ranch in the Coast Range and a second in Tucson, Arizona. Don’t ask how that works out, as mostly it takes a lot of juggling, but it’s worth what it requires to make it happen.
A wife, mother and grandmother, I write romances that are set in the American West—so far using settings in Oregon, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, but maybe someday in the other Western states I love, where I have spent a lot of time but cannot manage to also live (a person can stretch themselves only so far).
My stories range from contemporary and historic to fantasy. I enjoy combining into a couple’s romance my own interests of hiking, creativity, dreams, nature, art, animals, relationships, family, politics, photography, aging, country living, transitions, and our senses (all 6).
All work here is copyrighted, but may be used elsewhere with permission.